Best time to post on LinkedIn in 2026: three studies compared

Ask when to post on LinkedIn and three well-known studies give you three different answers. Buffer's puts the best slot on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Sprout Social's puts it on Tuesday between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Hootsuite's puts it on Tuesday and Wednesday between 8 and 9 a.m. They do not even agree on whether Tuesday is a good day.

All three report times in the audience's local time, and all three come from companies that sell social media software, as eksis does. So instead of adding a fourth chart, this article puts the three side by side as they read on October 21, 2026, shows where they overlap and why they differ, and ends with a way to find the hours that work for your own profile or Company Page.

The short answer

If you need a schedule today, start here:

Post on Wednesday and Thursday first. All three studies rate Wednesday highly, while Tuesday splits them.
Start with an afternoon slot between 1 and 5 p.m. on Wednesday or Thursday. That is where the studies overlap most.
Test one contrasting slot against it: early morning, where Hootsuite's best times sit, or early evening, since Buffer's peak window runs until 8 p.m.
Keep important posts off the weekend. All three studies rank it last.
Schedule in your followers' time zone, measure in LinkedIn's own analytics, and keep a note of the hour each post went out.

What each study found

	Buffer	Sprout Social	Hootsuite
Sample	More than 4.8 million LinkedIn posts sent through Buffer	Nearly 2 billion engagements across 307,000 profiles on six networks	More than 1 million social posts, LinkedIn share not stated
Data period	Not stated, article dated September 9, 2026	November 27, 2025 to February 27, 2026	Not stated, labeled 2025 data
Best single time	Wednesday, 4 p.m.	Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.	Tuesday and Wednesday, 8 to 9 a.m.
Best days	Wednesday, then Thursday and Friday	Tuesday to Thursday	Tuesday and Wednesday
Weakest	Monday and Tuesday, mornings before noon, and weekends	Weekends	Weekends

Each study also names a best time for every day. Buffer lists three per day, and the table shows its top one. Highlighted cells mark the day of each study's best time of the week. Hootsuite gives 8 to 9 a.m. on both Tuesday and Wednesday, slightly off its own daily figures, so both are marked.

Day	Buffer	Sprout Social	Hootsuite
Monday	10 p.m.	1 to 2 p.m.	11 a.m.
Tuesday	4 p.m.	11 a.m. to 5 p.m.	6 to 8 a.m.
Wednesday	4 p.m.	11 a.m. to 4 p.m.	9 a.m.
Thursday	5 p.m.	11 a.m., and 1 to 5 p.m.	2 p.m.
Friday	3 p.m.	11 a.m., and 1 to 2 p.m.	8 p.m.
Saturday	9 a.m.	Avoid posting	4 to 5 a.m.
Sunday	10 p.m.	Avoid posting	6 a.m.

Read across any row and the answers are hours apart. On Tuesday, Hootsuite's best time is 6 to 8 a.m., Sprout Social's window covers the middle of the day, and Buffer's best time is 4 p.m., on a day Buffer counts among its weakest.

Where the studies agree

The overlap is small, but it is there.

Weekends come last. Buffer says weekend engagement drops off significantly, Sprout Social lists both days as times to avoid, and Hootsuite calls weekends typically the worst days.
Wednesday is strong in all three. It is Buffer's best day and holds its best slot, it is one of Sprout Social's three strongest days, and Hootsuite names it with Tuesday as its best.
Thursday afternoon is the closest they come to one window. Hootsuite's best Thursday time is 2 p.m., Sprout Social's Thursday window runs from 1 to 5 p.m., and Buffer's best Thursday time is 5 p.m., at the end of that window.
The times are local. All three report times in local time (Hootsuite localized its data across 118 countries), so 4 p.m. means 4 p.m. where your followers are.

The biggest split is Tuesday. Sprout Social puts its best time of the week there, while Buffer reports that Monday and Tuesday showed the lowest engagement in its data, and notes that other research disagrees.

Why the answers differ

They study different accounts

Buffer analyzed LinkedIn posts sent through Buffer, Sprout Social used first-party data from 307,000 profiles, and Hootsuite worked with Critical Truth on posts from 118 countries. A study can only report the hours its own sample keeps.

They count different things

Buffer ranks each hour by the engagement its LinkedIn posts received. Sprout Social counts engagements, nearly 2 billion of them across six networks. Hootsuite counted posts across networks without saying how many were on LinkedIn. A count of engagements grows whenever more people are scrolling, while a ranking of posts asks how posts did at that hour, so the two can point to different hours.

They cover different months

Sprout Social's data runs from late November to late February, a stretch that includes the end-of-year holidays. Hootsuite labels its study 2025 data, and its time zone charts are described as Q4 2024 data. Buffer gives no data period, but it reports a change over time: in its 2025 analysis, peak engagement stayed inside working hours, and in 2026 the peak moved later, to between 3 and 8 p.m. Habits shift, so an older or winter sample may not describe your audience today.

Industry moves the answer

Sprout Social and Hootsuite both break their data down by industry, and the breakdowns do not match. For financial services on Thursdays, Sprout Social lists 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., while Hootsuite lists 5 to 7 p.m.

Two of the pages disagree with themselves

Hootsuite's key takeaways give 8 to 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while the section below them says early morning, 4 to 6 a.m., on the same days. Sprout Social's table recommends Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., while its FAQ says engagement drops after 2 p.m. Treat any single figure from these pages as a place to start testing.

Find your own best time to post on LinkedIn

Even the study authors see different results on their own accounts: Hootsuite's social media team lead writes that Mondays and Fridays have worked best for Hootsuite's LinkedIn account. A simple test:

Pick two or three candidate slots from the tables above, for example Wednesday at 3 p.m., Thursday at 2 p.m., and one morning slot at 8 a.m.
Post in each slot for three to four weeks. Spread your formats evenly, so one slot does not get all the document posts and look better for that reason alone.
Compare engagement per post, not totals, and check how many posts each number rests on. One post that takes off can make a slot look better than it is.
Keep the best slot, swap the weakest for a new candidate, and run the test again next quarter.

Where to read the results on LinkedIn

LinkedIn's free analytics differ by account type.

For a Company Page, open the Page admin view and click Analytics in the left menu. Content lists each post with its impressions, reactions, comments, reposts, and engagement rate. Followers breaks your followers down by location, seniority, job function, industry, and company size.
For a personal profile, click the Me icon, choose View Profile, and click Show all in the Analytics section. Content analytics ranks your top posts by impressions or engagements over a date range you pick, and Audience analytics shows your followers' top job titles, locations, industries, seniority, company sizes, and companies.

Use the location breakdown to pick the time zone you schedule in, and keep your own record of the hour each post went out. LinkedIn describes the Created column in Page analytics as the date each post was posted, and Buffer notes that a published post shows only a relative time such as 3h or 2d.

Profile or Company Page?

None of the three studies publishes separate times for personal profiles and Company Pages. Buffer says its windows apply to both, and Sprout Social's how-to steps assume a Company Page. Run the test for each account you post from, since a founder's followers and a brand's followers may not scroll at the same hours.

Schedule LinkedIn posts in eksis

eksis covers the scheduling half of this test, not the measuring half. It publishes text, photo, and video posts to your personal LinkedIn profile at the time you choose. It does not post to Company Pages yet, and it cannot show statistics or a Best hours to post chart for LinkedIn. LinkedIn provides post statistics to outside apps through its Community Management API, which it approves application by application, and eksis does not have that approval yet. Read your results in LinkedIn's analytics, as described above.

To schedule your test posts:

Check your workspace time zone under Settings, General, Time zone. Every publish time follows it, so set it to where most of your followers live.
Click Create post, pick your LinkedIn profile as the destination account, and write the post. Under Who can see this, choose Anyone on LinkedIn or Your connections only.
Click Edit next to Publish time. In the Schedule a time dialog, pick the Date and Time of the slot you are testing, then click Schedule.
When a round ends, open Posts, switch to List, and filter by your LinkedIn account and the Published status. The Time column shows the date and hour each post went out, which is the record LinkedIn's analytics leave out.

The Free plan connects one account and allows 15 scheduled posts a month, enough for three test posts a week. Starter has no monthly cap and connects up to 20 accounts. See the LinkedIn integration for what eksis publishes, or compare plans.

Timing is one part of the post

A good slot puts a post in front of people, and the opening lines decide whether they click see more. Our caption length guide shows how much each platform displays, and the AEO workflow for LinkedIn helps you pick topics people already ask about. For the same three companies' Facebook studies, see the best time to post on Facebook.

Sources

All were read on October 21, 2026. The companies update these studies, so check the source before you quote a number.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best time to post on LinkedIn?

No single time works for every account. In three large studies, Buffer names Wednesday at 4 p.m., Sprout Social names Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Hootsuite names Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 to 9 a.m. A Wednesday or Thursday afternoon slot between 1 and 5 p.m. is a reasonable first test, since that is where the studies overlap most.

What is the best day to post on LinkedIn?

Wednesday is the safest pick. Buffer ranks it first, Sprout Social counts it among its three strongest days, and Hootsuite names it with Tuesday. Tuesday is contested: Sprout Social and Hootsuite rate it highly, while Buffer finds it among the weakest days.

What is the worst time to post on LinkedIn?

All three studies put weekends last, and Sprout Social recommends not posting on Saturday or Sunday at all. Buffer also reports weaker results on Monday and Tuesday and for posts shared before noon. Hootsuite does not name a weakest hour.

Is the best time different for a personal profile and a Company Page?

The studies do not say. None of them reports separate results, and Buffer says its times apply to both. Test each account on its own, using Page analytics for a Company Page and creator analytics for a profile.

Can eksis show my best time to post on LinkedIn?

Not yet. LinkedIn provides post statistics to outside apps through its Community Management API, which eksis has not been approved for yet, so eksis Analytics has no LinkedIn numbers. eksis can schedule posts to your LinkedIn profile, and its Posts list records the time each one went out.

The best time to post on LinkedIn in 2026, according to three studies

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